Formulas Fatal, Lethal and Seriously Deathly - 87%

Yes, sacred art indeed created by these Portuguese troubadours who didn’t last very long on the scene, but did impress the more devoted connoisseurs and high quality music seekers with their meticulously crafted death/thrash formulas which on the two EP’s were modelled after the works of Atheist and Pestilence only that our friends here had focused on atmosphere and harmonious, some of those keyboards-guided, melodies and not so much on jazzy histrionics, with still an expressive bass presence ala Steve DiGiorgio lurking underneath, bravely supporting the seemingly calm vistas where very seldom a temptation at a faster play can be detected.

The described heretofore formula has experienced a few unmitigated cosmetic alterations as the delivery on the album reviewed here is both more aggressive and more contrived. Atheist and Pestilence don’t seem to be the main influences anymore as there’s a fair bit of later-period Death’s, and respectively the Polish Sceptic, flavour “roaming” around, with haunting keyboards again ensuring the deeply atmospheric at times tapestry the latter taken straight from Nocturnus’ “The Key”. The dreamy ethereal sections are everywhere, but they amazingly work quite well with the head-shaking Coroner-esque vortexes stirred on "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean", and especially on the mesmerizing "Regressing" which could be a highlight even on the mentioned Swiss’ “No More Color”. Elsewhere it’s thrash and death that co-exist more or less peacefully for the production of several admirable progressive opuses ("The Vision We Preserve", "Prophets and Shadows") where the application of the keyboards goes a bit over the top in a way similar to the Gathering’s “Always”, the band nearly creating a gothic-like setting here and there. The “tranquillity” gets seriously disturbed on the outstanding title-track which is a hectic dynamic death/thrasher, and “frivolities” of the kind by all means get the job done to prick the instilled steady composure that also welcomes serene acoustic, all-instrumental idylls (“Andromeda”) as an antidote to the few aggressive outbursts.

The rough throaty death metal vocals try their best to play the role of the rude awakening at times, and their presence is well noted the guy logically becoming more vociferous on the more intense moments. Said moments surely propel the album forward although the overall layout still remains on the calmer side the band just diversifying their palette with those more brutal appearances, not willing to permanently accept them into their bloodstream. In the end the established formula can be compared to the one provided by their neighbours Unreal Overflow as each of the Spaniards’ three opuses are built on the same “not easily perturbed by aggressive skirmishes” aura, an admirable stance, if you think of it, and not a very common one as both death and thrash have always been oriented towards the stirring of noise and havoc…

Those two were perhaps next on the guys’ list cause, seriously, how much time can you spend altering the Deathly Hallows’ landscapes/soundscapes before you start feeling guilty? Not very long for sure, if you want your art to stay within the sacred confines, right? Well, our troubadours chose to disappear rather than betray their entangled “placating” ideals, leaving a fairly interesting legacy behind them, one that has definitely found its way into the CD/mp3 players of the contemporary “death metal diversification” campaigners…